***... but it was unclear how much help those pledges would be in achieving Obama’s goal of extending coverage to some 50 million uninsured Americans. ***
The above is incorrect. There are NO uninsured Americans. All any American who is not paying for PRIVATE insurance has to do is walk into any ER in the country and he’ll be signed up for Medicaid. ( Funny that Medicaid was not mentioned in the article.) And Medicaid is just the same as Obama wants us all to be on, except we will ALL be under the government’s thumb when we need treatment. How do they figure the government will save any money that way? I still think Romney’s plan was best: Let anyone who CAN AFFORD private insurance pay for it or not get treatment. That cuts down on the cost of Medicaid and would be a huge savings for the taxpayers.
Also, the article was written as a scare tactic to help get socialized health passed.
I was in the pharmacy when an elderly lady picked up 6 perscritions - medicaid. Her total co pay was $2.56. I don’t know what the perscriptions were for but what a deal! Of course, you and I paid the difference.